Ericka Bradley

Name: Ericka Bradley

Gender: Female

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: Bayview Secondary School

Hobbies and Interests: Ericka is primarily interested in literature and classical music. She is a member of the Writer's Corner, and a member of the band. The books she reads span the entire range, both fiction and nonfiction, and can be of any genre. She occasionally helps out in the school library as well, when she's not in there to read.

Appearance: Ericka is a petite girl, with black hair and brown eyes. She stands at 5 feet and weighs 100 lbs. She usually has straight, mid-length hair with a messy fringe. Her pale skin is clear and smooth. She needs glasses only to read, but since she rarely takes her tiny nose out of her books they are almost always on her face. At the time of her abduction she was wearing a beige sweater, tan pants, and a pair of comfortable boots.

Biography: Ericka is the older of two children born to a businesswoman and a stay at home dad. When she was little, her father read her bed time stories, as many parents do, and Ericka became enthralled by the lands and characters of the stories. She insisted on being taught how to read, learning to do so slightly earlier than average children. She now has several book shelves in her room, and often has her nose in some kind of book. She got her love of classical music from her mother, who would often play cassettes, and later CDs, of it during the few times she was home. One year, for her birthday, Ericka received a flute from her mother and father. The gift made her very happy, as did the lessons she was soon enrolled in. Ericka’s little brother was born when she was six, and although she was unhappy about it at first, she has since grown to care for her brother deeply.

Ericka has always been an introvert, rarely interacting with others until a few years ago. She prefers reading books, or listening to classical music, over things like the tv shows, sports, and celebrity gossip a number of her peers enjoy. She does well in those areas of school she enjoys, such as English and music, and average in other subjects. To those who have barely met Ericka, it seems like she is quiet and stoical, if a bit optimistic, but when someone gets to know her they find she has a personality that is quite a bit warmer then they may have first thought, if maybe still a bit quiet.

A few years ago, when SotF first aired, Ericka's father became nervous. He decided to try teaching his children survival skills, even though he knew it may not save them if they ever got abducted, but he would feel comforted knowing they at least had the basics of some of the weapons they may have to use, Ericka had different plans however. Disliking the very idea of the training, Ericka used the opportunity to get herself to socialize more. Since then she's made a few friends, joined the band and the Writer's Corner, and begun to help around the library.

Advantages: Between avoiding her peers, and later her father, she's may have gained a slight preference for stealth.

Disadvantages: Ericka is not fast, strong, or social. The fact that the worst case scenario that her father planned for is coming true may make her prone to additional stress and/or psychological issues. Ericka met most of her friends fairly recently, and a number of them are as introverted as she is, risking the cohesion of any groups she tries to make or join.

Designated Number: Female student no. 063

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Designated Weapon: CZ-99 (9mm) [x4 clips (13 round capacity)]

Conclusion: Wow, what a loser. Her father had a paranoid moment and tried to prepare her for exactly this situation, but she slacked off. I bet she thought it could never happen to her. Well, at least this'll provide a little entertaining viewing for dear old dad. G063 may even last a day with that gun, though I wouldn't bet on it.

'The above biography is as written by TDS. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: TDS

Kills: Frankie Watson, Jamie Li, Remy Kim, Thea Kairos, Josee Trembley, Madeleine Smith

Killed By: Reiko Ishida

Collected Weapons: CZ-99 (Assigned Weapon), CQC 6 (from Frankie Watson), Gun Holster (from Dawne Jiang), Switchblade (from Remy Kim), Tokarev TT (taken from Gloria Benson)

Allies: None

Enemies: Frankie Watson, Peter Siu, Jamie Li, Ricky Fortino, Josee Trembley, Madeleine Smith, Reiko Ishida

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Other/Trivia

 * The outfit Ericka is wearing on the island has no pockets.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Ericka, in chronological order.

The Past:

No threads

Pre-Game:
 * Summer in Paris, Light from the Sky
 * Lunch on the Lawn

V4
 * Droplets
 * Just Like a Hangover, But Without All the Fun
 * Not an Easy Out
 * The Cloud Minders
 * A Day at the Beach
 * Eep.
 * Tempting Fate
 * In For a Penny, In For a Pound
 * Don't Let The Bedbugs Bite
 * Through and Through
 * Failing to Reappear
 * Camping Out
 * We Need To Stop Meeting Like This
 * Everybody Loses (V4 Endgame)

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Ericka Bradley. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Ericka was a character with an interesting concept and early game. I felt that Frankie's grudge surfaced a bit suddenly, but it worked a lot better from Ericka's side than his. It was a good way to get her into a scared mindset and set her up to realize that others were threats, which I think is key to making many players work.

The problem, I think, and what really causes trouble for Ericka in the long run, is that that was the biggest, most dynamic change in temperament she experienced in her story. Afterwards, she sort of coasted, most devolving into paranoia and attacking anyone she could get a good shot at. That can be fine, but we didn't get into her head enough for it to really be interesting. Ericka had flashes of something else, but they usually persist for only a single post (like when she bemoans the fact that the the rescuers aren't coming back). A lot of her posts are really minimal, and they came infrequently, so she just didn't get as much development or depth as a lot of other characters around in the late game. In many ways, Ericka was more there to move the plot, which is an okay function at the start of the game but just doesn't hold interest very well over the course of a whole version.

It also really didn't help that Ericka often seemed to go out of her way to avoid engaging in any plotline or discussion that didn't lead to her killing people. The biggest example of this is with Josée. Attempts to move towards some sort of resolution between them stall out until Josée gets rolled, and in a manner that doesn't even really provide any tension, resulting in a really frustrating scene which has all the makings of a great confrontation but ends up with Ericka not giving anything to move it that way.

Ericka isn't horrible; I just felt like she was one of the weaker players on the whole because she was both static and very surface-level. There wasn't enough to make the reader sympathize with her, and she didn't do enough to give her plot much momentum. TDS had other really good characters; I just think it's a shame that Ericka got the furthest of his cast because I feel like she was the weakest of his V4 crew by a notable margin.

That said, I think Ericka worked out pretty well in Endgame while active, because she brought a very different and under-represented facet of being a player to the mix, which already had other bases covered. TDS was also super great to work with there. - MurderWeasel